Although, I think, 'twas in another sense ;)

I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves; And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDEllo.

Here comes the rogue.

been?

Sirrah, where have you

Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now !
where are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes,
Or you stol'n his, or both? pray what's the news?
Luc. Sirrah, come hither: 'tis no time to jest ;
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life.
You understand me?

Bion.

I, sir? ne'er a whit. Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth. Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him; 'would, I were so too! Tra. So would I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,

That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest

daughter.

But, sirrah, —not for my sake, but

I advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of

companies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else, your master Lucentio.
Luc. Tranio, let's go. —

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;

-

To make one among these woers: If thou ask me

why,

Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty.

1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. Sly. Yes, by St. Anne, do I. A good matter, surely : Comes there any more of it?

Page. My lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady 'Would 'twere done!

SCENE II. The same.

Before HORTENSIO'S House.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, To see my friends in Padua; but, of all, My best beloved and approved friend, Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house. Here, sirrah Grumio! knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there

any man has rebus'd your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir ?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate; And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.

23 Here in the old copy we have," The presenters above speak;" meaning Sly, &c., who were placed in a balcony raised at the back of the stage. After the words "would it were done." the marginal direction is, They sit and mark.

And then I know after who comes by the worst. Pet. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it: I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah! villain!

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now! what's the matter?

My old

friend Grumio, and my good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona ?

Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?

Con tutto il core ben trovato, may I say.

Hor. Alla nostra casa ben venuto,

Molto honorato, signor mio Petruchio.'

Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel. Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir. He bid me knock him, and, rap him soundly, sir: Well, was it fit for

Gascoigne in his Supposes has spelt this name correctly Petrucio, but Shakespeare wrote it Petruchio, in order to teach the actors how to pronounce it. So Dekker writes Infeliche for Infelice.

That is, what he alleges in Latin. Grumio thinks Petruchio has been speaking Latin. Monck Mason thought it strange the Poet should make Grumio mistake Italian for Latin, the former being his native tongue. But of course all the persons, though Italians, speak as Englishmen; and when they use Italian, they do so as foreigners, not as natives. Tyrwhitt, however, ingeniously proposed to read be leges, instead of he 'leges; in which case the sense would be,- -""Tis no matter what be laws in Latin, if this te not a lawful cause," &c.

H.

3

a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for
aught I see,) two and thirty, a pip out? 3
Whom 'would to God I had well knock'd at first;
Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain! - Good Hortensio,
I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
And could not get him for my heart to do it.

Gru. Knock at the gate ?-O heavens! spake you not these words plain, —“Sirrah, knock me here; rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly?" and come you now with knocking at the gate?

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you. Hor. Petruchio, patience: I am Grumio's pledge. Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you; Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona ?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world,

To seek their fortunes further than at home,
Where small experience grows. But, in a few,*
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
Antonio, my father, is deceas'd;

And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive, and thrive, as best I may:

This passage has escaped the commentators, and yet it is more obscure than many they have explained. Perhaps it was passed over because it was not understood. The allusion is to the old game of Bone-ace or one-and-thirty. A pip is a spot upon a card. The same allusion is found in Massinger's Fatal Dowry, Act ii. sc. 2: "You think, because you served my lady's mother, are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know." There

is a secondary allusion (in which the joke lies) to a popular mode

of inflicting punishment upon certain offenders.

In a few means the same as in short, in a few words.

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, shall I, then, come roundly to thee,

And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife? 5
Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel;
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
And very rich:

-

- But thou'rt too much my frienu,

And I'll not wish thee to her..

Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,

(As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,)
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xantippe, or a worse,
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me: Were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas,'

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what

Il-favoured has reference, no doubt, to the features of her mind, not of her person. Shrewd in the sense of shrew. H. 6 This allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first book of his Confessio Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who bound himself to marry a deformed hag provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended. This story may have been taken from the Gesta Romanorum: Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale is of a similar kind.

7 A writer in the Pictorial Shakespeare, in a note upon this passage, says,- The Adriatic, though well land-locked, and in summer often as still as a mirror, is subject to severe and sudden storms. The great sea-wall which protects Venice, distant eighteen miles from the city, and built, of course, in a direction where it is best sheltered and supported by the islands, is, for three miles abreast of Palestrina, a vast work for width and loftiness; yet it is frequently surmounted in winter by the swelling Adriatic seas, which pour over it into the Lagunes."